Working with modules

jesentanadi

Hi, I have a question about working in modules—specifically where the generated .pyc files are (if anywhere).

For example: I import a module of helper functions into my main script and test the script in RF. And then when I have to edit one of the helper functions, RF isn't "aware" of the changes. I usually quit and re-open RF and then it'll work fine.

My understanding is that .pyc files are created on import, at runtime, and I assume this is why RF doesn't see the changes in the imported module, but I don't see those files (or a __pycache__) folder in my dev folder. Are they stored somewhere in Application Support?

jesentanadi

@gferreira Ah! Ok, thank you. Very helpful! :+1:

gferreira

when an extension is installed, its lib folder is added to the sys.path. and since it’s a shared namespace, there is a conflict if two modules have the same name.

the recommendation is to use reverse domain names (without dots) to create unique names for extension modules:

comJesentanadiExtensionNameUtils (Extension1)
comJesentanadiAnotherExtensionUtils (Extension2)

see the note in Extension File Specification > lib

jesentanadi

@frederik One more question.

Another problem I'm having is that if I have 2 extensions with some helper functions in a utils directory, when I try to run the second one, I get a ModuleNotFoundError for something in the utils directory.

For example:

Extension1.roboFontExt
└── lib
    ├── extensionName.py
    └── utils
        ├── __init__.py
        └── helperFunctions.py

Extension2.roboFontExt
└── lib
    ├── anotherExtension.py
    └── utils
        ├── __init__.py
        └── calculations.py

When I have Extension1 installed and I try to run Extension2 from the scripting window, I'll get something like ModuleNotFoundError: No module named utils.calculations.

Should I treat each extension like a package and put an __init__.py in the lib folder of each extension?

Extension1.roboFontExt
└── lib
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── extensionName.py
    └── utils
        ├── __init__.py
        └── helperFunctions.py

Extension2.roboFontExt
└── lib
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── anotherExtension.py
    └── utils
        ├── __init__.py
        └── calculations.py

frederik

If you have the extension installed RoboFont copies during installing the extension to <user>/Libary/Application Support/RoboFont/plugins and there you will find your .pyc or pycache.

For development I would recommend to have a main.py that load the extension so you can run this directly in the scripting window.

good luck!

jesentanadi

This post is deleted!

jesentanadi

@frederik Thanks. Is it possible to delete .pyc files of __pycache__ folder? I don't know where RoboFont puts those.

frederik

.pyc or __pychache__ are indeed made during runtime on import of the requested module. To reload a py file in python3 you can use:

import module

import importlib
importlib.reload(module)

You will have to do this for each ‘file’ in your module.
Be careful with subclasses of NSObjects.

SOLVED Working with modules